What the First Conversation With Curio Actually Looks Like

If you have been reading these journals for a while, or scrolling through our work, or quietly wondering whether your project is the kind of thing we do - this post is for you. The one who has the project in their head but has not quite made the call yet. The one who is not sure if they are ready, or if their budget is right, or if what they are imagining is even possible.

I want to tell you what actually happens when you reach out, because I think the uncertainty about that process is often what keeps people from starting. And starting, in almost every case, costs nothing and clarifies everything.

Before You Reach Out

You do not need to have it figured out. This is the thing I want to say most clearly and most directly: you do not need a fully formed vision, a locked budget, a defined scope, or a clear sense of your style before you contact us. You need a general sense of what you are trying to accomplish and a rough idea of when you want to start. That is genuinely enough.

The clients who arrive with the most rigidly formed ideas are sometimes the hardest to serve well, because good design requires openness and discovery. The clients who arrive saying I know something needs to change but I am not sure what, or I have this house that I love and I cannot figure out why it does not feel right, or I am about to start a renovation and I do not know where to begin - those are perfect starting points. Those are exactly what the first conversation is for.

What is helpful to have thought about before you reach out: the general scope of the project, whether it is a single room, a full renovation, or a new build. A rough sense of timeline, not an exact date but whether you are thinking about starting in three months or twelve. And a general budget range, not a final number but enough to know what tier of project you are working within. If you do not have that yet, that is fine too. We can talk through it.

What Happens When You Submit an Inquiry

When you fill out the contact form on our site, it comes directly to me. Not an assistant, not an automated system. Me. I read every inquiry personally, and I respond within one to two business days.

My first response is not a proposal or a contract or a questionnaire with forty-seven questions. It is a note back acknowledging what you shared, asking a few clarifying questions if I need them, and suggesting a time to talk. That is it. The bar to get a response from me is a single paragraph telling me what you are working on. I will take it from there.

The Discovery Call

The discovery call is a conversation, not an interview. It is not a sales pitch, and it is not an audition. It is two people figuring out whether there is a project here and whether we are the right fit for each other. Both of those things matter equally to me.

Here is what we typically cover:

Your project: What you are trying to accomplish, what the space is, what is driving the timing.

Your priorities: What matters most to you, whether that is budget efficiency, a specific aesthetic, a timeline, or the quality of the process itself.

Your concerns: What you are nervous about, what has stopped you from starting before, what has gone wrong on past projects, if there have been any.

Your questions: Whatever you came into the call wanting to know about how we work, what we cost, what the process looks like, and what you can expect.

I will also share what I am seeing in your project from what you have described. Not a full design direction as we have not done the work yet, but an honest read on the scope, the complexity, and whether it is the kind of project Curio is built for. If it is not, I will tell you that directly and point you toward whoever I think would serve you better. I would rather lose a project than take one that is not the right fit.

The discovery call runs between 15-30 minutes. By the end of it you should have a clear sense of what working with us looks like, what comes next if you want to move forward, and whether the conversation felt like the beginning of something good.

The On-Site Consultation

If the discovery call feels like a fit on both sides, the next step is an on-site consultation. I come to the space and we spend about an hour walking through the property together in detail. I ask a lot of questions, take notes and photographs, and get a real sense of what the project is from the inside. We talk through the scope room by room, discuss what is working and what is not, and start to understand what the space needs to do and how the people living in it actually move through it.

After the consultation, I put together a proposal. It outlines the scope of work, the fee structure, the timeline, and what the engagement includes from onboarding through installation. It is specific enough to be useful and honest enough to be trusted. No vague language, no hidden costs, no fine print that changes the picture later.

If the proposal feels right, we sign an agreement and we begin. The first phase is onboarding: getting deeply acquainted with how you live, what you love, what you cannot stand, what the space needs to do, and what it needs to feel like. Everything that comes after is built on that foundation.

The Thing I Most Want You to Know

Most people who reach out to us have been thinking about it for a while. Weeks, months, sometimes years. The project has been sitting in the back of their minds, getting more defined or more overwhelming depending on the day, and they have been waiting for the right moment or the right level of readiness to make the call.

There is no right moment. There is only the moment when you decide that living in a space that does not work for you costs more than the conversation it takes to start changing it. That realization is usually the beginning of the best projects we do.

If you are there, or close to it, I would love to hear from you.

Love, Sav